Asia Rugby Sevens Series 2022 : Sri Lanka finish fourth

Sri Lanka had to settle for fourth place in the second leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens Series 2022 after losing 24-07 to the Philippines in the match for third place. Sri Lanka got off to a bright start but suffered some setbacks in the last half of the match due to the aggressive playing style of the Filipino players.

Eight countries participated in this series, which was held on November 12-13 at the Namdong Asiad Rugby Stadium in Incheon, South Korea. In the final, Hong Kong defeated hosts South Korea 19-12 to win the cup championship.

China managed to claim its first title by defeating the United Arab Emirates 31-21 in the final.

Sri Lanka lost 40-00 against Hong Kong in the first match of the preliminary round held on Saturday. In the matches that followed, Sri Lanka registered wins against the United Arab Emirates (26-14) and China (21-19) and took the opportunity to compete for the championship of the tournament.

However, Sri Lanka lost 31-14 to South Korea in the semi-final for the cup championship and had to compete for third place against the Philippines, who lost 17-00 in the semi-final against Hong Kong.

Captain Srinath Suriyabandara, who scored a try in the first minute of the match against the Philippines, and Mithun Hapugoda, who succeeded in his conversion, gave Sri Lanka a successful start. However, in the face of the aggressive playing style of the Filipino players, Sri Lanka could not maintain the lead for a long time.

Harrison Blake, who scored a try in the fourth minute, and Kai Strom, who succeeded in the conversion, gave the
Philippines the opportunity to tie the scores. Donald Coleman scored another try in the last minute of the first half to put his team in the lead at 12-07 going into the break.

The Filipino players did not let Sri Lanka score in the second half and managed to score two more tries in the 11th and 13th minutes of the game. Jerem Rudder and Nicholas Robertson scored the tries for the Philippines, the latter of which was converted by Kai Strom.

Suriyabandara said that they were happy as a team for being among the first four teams in the series and added that if they had won the semi-final against Korea and entered the final, that happiness would have doubled.

“We tried hard to beat Korea to qualify for the finals. But we made some mistakes. We couldn’t hold the ball for long. They took advantage of it. As for the match for third place, the Philippines played in a very aggressive manner. They tried to put us in that situation. Unfortunately, we fell into their trap,” said Suriyabandara.

There was heavy rain on the first day of the match, and on the second day, the weather was extremely cold. The Sri Lankan captain further stated that the Sri Lankan players were very uncomfortable playing under such conditions, but that would not be used as an excuse for losing the match.

“We didn’t get time to get used to this cold weather. We only had one training session. Although we made a few mistakes, overall we played very well in this tournament. We hope to use the experience gained to prepare for the third leg in the United Arab Emirates.” Suriyabandara added. (Shanuka Aravinda reporting from Incheon, South Korea)